Coding jargon can be complicated, especially when you are an alien to all things computer science related. but when our lives are now almost all centred around digital technology, having knowledge on the systems and programming behind the applications you use on the daily can be incredibly useful, especially for career prospects. Moreover, this post will attempt to explain markdown and its uses in the most luddite friendly way possible!

So firstly, what is markdown? to put it plainly, markdown is a formatting syntax for plain text which aims to make writing easier for the internet, making it readable without tags interfering with the reading experience. it allows texts modifiers such as italics, bold and lists to be added to the text. It is likely you experience markdown daily without realising it, for example, when making a new post on reddit and the words are in italics, in markdown this would be enclosed with asterisks (*italics*). 

Why should markdown be used?

Markdown is actually super easy to get to grips with once you get your head around the idea its not some alien code. Markdown is much faster that writing with a rich text editor, particularly when you’re wanting to use a variety of text modifiers such as bulleted lists and text styles. it is also much easier to read than raw HTML. 

Which software uses it?

Markdown is used on almost any site you can think of. It is the most popular with coding websites such as GitHub. It is also used especially with communication and messaging sites such as Skype, Facebook messenger and even Wikipedia which uses its own modified syntax. 

So there you have it, markdown isn’t as daunting as you might’ve though was it?